Ashley Kaimowitz was born in 1985 and died in 2005. She was born in Sea Point, Cape Town. She was a member of the Rotary-sponsored Interact Committee, recipient of the Young Person of the Award sponsored by the Rotary Club of the Waterfront. She was also an exchange student to Japan, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Hout Bay in 2004. She was known as a young adult who always grabbed the opportunities that were offered to her.

Ashley attended Herzlia School and matriculated in 2003. She became secretary of the Rotary-sponsored Interact Committee which is the largest and most active school club at Herzlia School. The Club promotes social awareness and fights against moral injustice. It also participates in a variety of charity-giving and outreach projects and programmes.

Ashley's story started in 2002 when the Rotary executive committee (including her) visited the Nonceba Family Counselling Centre, a small counselling centre in Khayelitsha. They were contacted by the centre's main fundraiser and writer, Hazel Black.  The centre was established by a local resident, Nocawe Mankayi, with the help of the community. She opened the centre because she saw the need to protect children who are abused by members of their immediate families. According to research, one in three girls in Khayelitsha will be the victim of rape or some other form of sexual abuse by the time they are twenty one years old. Rape has become the second largest epidemic after Aids in South Africa. The centre is a not-for-profit organisation and it does not receive any kind of help from Government. When Ashley visited the centre; it operated from a small rented brick room. The only thing children had to play with was the jungle gym which was donated by one of the Samaritans.

When Ashley and her colleagues entered the centre they were welcomed by Nocawe. Ashley couldn't hold back her tears when they were shown a 4-year-old girl who was sitting in a small room with the saddest and loneliest face imaginable. She had been raped by her father the previous night. She was brought to the centre by a family member. Ashley opened her arms and the little girl looked at her and she came into her arms. Ashley began to cry uncontrollably. That was the moment that she knew that her purpose on this earth was to contribute to disadvantaged communities.

The little girl's image and the pain that was written on her face never faded from Ashley's mind. When she was on her way back home her mind was busy trying to find a way to tell the whole world about her experience at the Nonceba Centre. She realised that writers have written about child rape, singers produced songs about child rape but she felt that was not enough. She knew that she couldn't take the world to Khayelitsha but she believed that she could take Khayelitsha to the world. She decided to make a documentary film about rape in South Africa. She was going to use the film as a fundraising tool to get donations to help the centre.  She wanted to use the money to build a centre with top quality facilities.

She knew that to make a film cost a fortune and she did not have that kind of money. She did have faith that everything is possible though, and she was going to do everything in her power to make her dream come true.   She contacted her grandparents in the USA who then got in touch with a couple who were on the board of directors of Rutgers University in New Jersey, United States of America. She told them her ideas and they willingly sponsored her $1,000 which is close to R10, 000.

It took four months to produce the film from creation to completion. Ashley had the money and the ideas but no camera, experience behind a camera, transport, editor, sound or recording studio. She went to libraries asking for help to make her dream come true. She also asked three of her school peers to help her with the project. In desperation, she checked the Yellow Pages for recording companies around Cape Town. She saw Magus Visual, a small film equipment rental company. It was the owner of the company who talked to her and asked her to visit the next day.  She agreed to help Ashley and found her an editor, Drawbridge Productions and music studio at Milestone Studios.

The documentary was finished in 2004. It was a 24-minute documentary and it was named "Uthando lwabantwana" meaning "For the love of Our Children". The premier screening took place at Herzlia High School with an audience of 200 people. The official photograph of the film was auctioned for R1 700.  They also made money on the sale of posters and receiving of donations. That evening alone the film made over R4 000. Ashley had an interview with Lisa Chiat on Cape Town's 567 Cape Talk Radio. Her idea was to raise awareness and invite people to pledge donations to the centre. A few days later she was contacted by an organisation called "Help South Africa Now" who helped find a car to donate to the centre to rescue victims. The documentary soon became the talk of the town and donations poured in. Over R50 000 in cash was donated to the centre. Ashley won the Rotary Young Person of the Year Award.

Ashley never stopped her fundraising efforts. She delivered a speech to the International Women's Club which was chaired at the time by former Cape Town Mayor, Diane Berrill. The club has been involved in fundraising for the Centre since then.  Reeds Delta and Old Mutual saw the film and they offered assistance in financing the building of a new centre. R2 million was donated towards the building of the new centre. According to the plan the centre was going to be equipped with a hostel, medical facilities, doctor's rooms, lawyer's rooms and many more offices. She also showed the film to the Kameoka City Hall and the Kameoka International Centre in an attempt to raise funds in Japan, to an overwhelming response.

In March 2005, on her way back home with three friends from a meeting to discuss the way forward for the project, Ashley's car was crashed by another vehicle which was driven by a drunk driver. She was killed instantly.

Even though Ashley's life was cut short so abruptly and tragically, her dream of a better world lives on. Rotary clubs formed a memorial fund which they called the Ashley Kaimowitz Memorial Fund. Donations have never stopped pouring in from all over and this enables the centre to keep functioning to help those who cannot help themselves.  

More articles about Ashley

• What I wish you knew
• Rotary
• Nonceba
• The be tourism 

Prudence Nobantu Mabele is known as the first black woman to disclose her HIV-positive status, in 1992. She is also a well-known South African activist working to promote the rights of women living with AIDS.

Prudence holds a diploma in engineering and another one in psychology. She has also graduated as a traditional healer (sangoma). It all started with some minor sicknesses when she was young. She was taken to many doctors who could not figure out what was wrong with her. Her grandmother, who was also a sangoma, never thought that Prudence will be her successor. Today Prudence is the one of those fortunate people to have healing powers, and to be able to use them to help others.

When she found out about her HIV status, she started a network programme to empower women living with HIV. Her aim was to teach them, empower them and provide knowledge about the disease. She also provides support groups, training and income-generating activities to HIV-positive women in South Africa and abroad. She is also an expert in counselling, gender empowerment, HIV/AIDS prevention and support. She works with grassroots organisations. She also works with regional, national and international organisations of people living with HIV/AIDS.

In 2004 she carried the Olympic torch as part of an international torch relay for the 2004 Olympics. She has received awards at the international and national level for the work she is doing in HIV/AIDS and homophobia.  She is a member of the Treatment Action Campaign and National Association of People Living with AIDS (NAPWA).  She is also a member of the Advisory Board for International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).

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Faghmeda Miller, a HIV/AIDS activist is running a support group called Positive Muslims for Muslims living with HIV/AIDS. She started this support group way back in 2000. Positive Muslims is the only group of its kind in the Western Cape. It counsels 40 people through support meetings and a buddy system. It also conducts awareness talks at schools. She is the first and only Muslim woman in South Africa to have disclosed her HIV status.

Faghmeda was diagnosed in 1995 and disclosed in 1996. Her story started a way back in 1994 when she became infected with HIV/Aids. She was living a happily marriage with her Malawian husband in Malawi. The disease was discovered shortly after her husband's death.

It was very difficulty for Faghmeda to talk about her status as she comes from a Muslim community. She decided to keep the information to herself. She thought that anyway she was not going to live for long as she believed that she was going to die soon. She waited patiently for her time to die but death was not happening. She realized that she should go back to the hospital and acquire more information about this disease.  She received counselling on a regular basis and slowly gained self confidende again.

The only thing that was left for Faghmeda to do was to disclose to her family and friends. That was not easy for her because she was not expecting any positive response from them. She thought that they were going to curse her away because of the stigma associated with the disease. Her family was very supportive and she came back to South Africa. Unfortunately for her there were no support groups for Muslims.

She joined one of Christian people who were very supportive. She wanted to be with her own people but she couldn't find anyone and it was heartbreaking for her. This time she decided to go to a local Islamic radio station to talk about HIV/AIDS. She received positive response as she gave her telephone number for people in need of support to call her. Since then her phone has never stop ringing.

Faghmeda decided to start a support group to help the others living with HIV/AIDS in her community. She realise how difficulty it was for a Muslim to come out and talk about his/her status. In spite of all the difficulties she encountered, Faghmeda opened a way for a better Muslim community living with AIDS. Every time the radio station calls her in to give a talk about AIDS. She has done several television programmes locally and internationally. She had appeared in various magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, documentaries and on all radio broadcasters in Cape Town and Johannesburg. She has her own documentary "The Malawian kiss" right on the top of her list.

She also wrote a book about her past 8 years as a HIV woman the book has not been published yet but it is finished. She also does home counselling and awareness programmes in different communities. Faghmeda also had a dream to fulfil her holy pilgrimage to Mecca and she completed it with pride in 2000. Through her hard work, Faghmeda received the Femina "Women of courage" Award and was nominated for "Women that made difference" in their community.

Sources:-

• Positive muslim
• Health-e
• Cadre
• Aegis